Until recently, TCP/IP communication was restricted to a single path per connection, yet multiple paths often exist between network devices or peers. The simultaneous use of these multiple paths for a TCP/IP session would improve resource usage within the network and, thus, improve user experience through higher throughput and improved resilience to network failure. To this end, a multipath TCP technology, called MPTCP, has been developed in the IETF. Details of this technology, as assumed and understood in the context of the present invention, are specified in various IETF documents, in particular in RFC 6824 “TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses”.
In an MPTCP connection, one logical connection consists of multiple connections (generally denoted as subflows) using different paths. Insofar, MPTCP relies on the existence of multiple paths at the end-systems. Typically, multiple paths are provided through different IP addresses obtained by different ISPs. For instance, deploying a hybrid access mechanism on a CPE (Customer-Premises Equipment) that provides multiple paths from the CPE to a service end-point is advantageous for the use of MPTCP connections.
However, MPTCP as developed so far comes along with a disadvantage. Content service delivery providers try to minimize the distance that data travels over the Internet by placing their content server close to or within the requesting ISP network. With the provision of MPTCP with two or more paths deployed, for instance, in combination with hybrid access as mentioned above, a DNS request for a content server will most likely choose the optimal location for the first path. However, this location is not necessarily the best location for the second or any further path and not for the aggregation of all paths.